Widespread distribution of allochthonous fluorescent dissolved organic matter in the intermediate water of the North Pacific

Abstract

Visible wavelength fluorescent dissolved organic matter (FDOM), usually defined as humic-like FDOM, plays important roles in marine carbon and iron cycles as biorefractory dissolved organic matter and organic ligands, respectively. The major fractions of FDOM in the open ocean have been considered to be of marine origin (autochthonous) according to linear relationships between FDOM and apparent oxygen utilization (AOU) in the mesopelagic (200–1000 m) and bathypelagic (>1000 m) layers. Recently, Yamashita et al. (2020) quantified allochthonous FDOM from the positive deviation of the general FDOM–AOU relationship in the bathypelagic layer and found that allochthonous FDOM derived from the Sea of Okhotsk was conservatively transported to the western North Pacific through the circulation of intermediate water, including North Pacific Intermediate Water (NPIW). However, the contribution of allochthonous FDOM from the Bering Sea, the other source region of NPIW, has not been evaluated. Here, we determined the distributions of allochthonous FDOM in the entire North Pacific, including the Sea of Okhotsk and the Bering Sea, and the spatial distribution of allochthonous FDOM in the density range of NPIW for the entire North Pacific. We found that the major source region of allochthonous FDOM in NPIW was the Sea of Okhotsk but not the Bering Sea, although the water mass contributing to the lower part of NPIW is known to be mainly derived from the Bering Sea. Such different contributions of allochthonous FDOM from the marginal seas are likely due to a lack of expansion of the dense shelf water, which forms at coastal polynya and interacts with shelf sediments with a strong tidal current, to the basin region of the Bering Sea. We also demonstrated that allochthonous FDOM derived from the shelf sediments of the Sea of Okhotsk was conservatively distributed to the wide area of the North Pacific through the circulation of intermediate water, particularly the upper part of NPIW. Furthermore, the negative deviations of the FDOM-AOU relationship in the bathypelagic layer were evident for other water masses, such as Antarctic Intermediate Water (AAIW), suggesting that FDOM can help determine the spatiotemporal distribution of NPIW and its mixing with other water masses, such as AAIW.